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Thursday, 8 November 2012

Champions name 4 debutants

LV Cup Champions Leicester Tigers name 4 debutantes as they kick off their defence of the trophy against Saracens on the neutral territory of Bedford's Goldington Road. Summer signings Henry Purdy, Lucas Guillame and Michael Noone make their debuts for the first XV whilst Academy graduate Joe "Co" Cain makes his first competitive appearance after featuring in this years pre-season. Every single one of the XV named has featured for the Extras in the A league at some point this season and Matt Cornwell steps up from his role as captain of that side to captain this side too.Andy Symons will be particularly pleased to play in this game, not just because it is a year since he broke his leg in the equivalent fixture last season, because he started his rugby life playing for Saracens amateur minis section in London.Micky Young is set to make only his third start for the club, his previous two have resulted in a long ban and a bad injury respectively, and will hopefully have more luck this time round.On the bench Harry Thacker, George Oliver and Tom Price are all academy forwards in line for a debut should they feature.

Saracens also rack up the changes for the fixture. Some players will be more familiar with the surroundings than others as Ben Ransom and Duncan Taylor have both been Bedford regulars over the past two years. Saracens have a much stronger team named than the Tigers so will be looking for a big win, but have still found room to include two players involved in the recent academy match between the sides in Nathan Earle and Nick Tompkins.Saracens: 15 Ben Ransom
14 Joe Maddock
13 Duncan Taylor
12 Sam Stanley
11 James Short
10 Nils Mordt (c)
9 Ben Spencer
1 Nick Auterac
2 Jamie George
3 Petrus du Plessis
4 George Kruis
5 Alistair Hargreaves
6 Nick Fenton-Wells
7 Andy Saull
8 Jono RossReplacements
16 Max Crumpton
17 John Smit
18 Lorenzo Romano
19 Eoin Sheriff
20 Matt Hankin
21 Luke Baldwin
22 Nick Tompkins
23 Nathan Earle